Water war foes have discussion

SACRAMENTO - Top-level talks between the warring factions in California's water supply feud restarted Thursday after a winter hiatus, with U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein now playing the role of moderator.

Hank Shaw

SACRAMENTO - Top-level talks between the warring factions in California's water supply feud restarted Thursday after a winter hiatus, with U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein now playing the role of moderator.

"We got stuck, and so it was great for the senator to rekindle it again," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said following the private, two-hour meeting.

Feinstein, Schwarzenegger and a slew of state lawmakers and water interests met face to face for the first time in a year, giving all a chance to vent and set down their political bottom lines without the filter of aides or the media.

"The group was large enough where political differences were aired and people got to see them," said state Sen. Michael Machado, a Linden Democrat who is among the Legislature's foremost experts on water issues. "That doesn't always happen."

Machado, Schwarzenegger and several others who attended the meeting characterized it as a sort of opening scene in what most view as a water supply bond's final act. If they fail this year, the next political window may not be until 2012.

As Feinstein noted: "2010 is a governor's race - probably not the best way to go."

Supporters of a water supply bond that includes money to build new dams - possibly on the San Joaquin River near Fresno or along the Sacramento River near Colusa - have plans to put an initiative on the ballot this fall.

Environmentalists and their allies among the Democrats say building costly new reservoirs isn't a wise use of scare taxpayer dollars because the state can secure far more water through stiffer conservation efforts and underground water storage.

Farmers and their allies among the Republicans say with climate change coming, more of the crucial Sierra Nevada snowpack will fall as rain instead of snow, making new reservoirs necessary to catch that runoff.

Feinstein, who has stepped up as broker in this long-running drama, shares much, but not all, of that view: "We have to be able to store some water in wet years to save for dry years ... you may or may not need dams."

Outgoing Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, who attended Thursday's meeting, is teaming up with the environmental community to oppose the dam proposal with a series of radio and TV ads that began running this week.

Stockton businessman Dean Cortopassi is a major funder of the anti-dam campaign, in no small part because it contains provisions that could lead to a Peripheral Canal around the Delta. Cortopassi has contributed $250,000 to the effort.

Schwarzenegger and Feinstein said they want to avoid a ballot battle if at all possible.

"The preferable outcome is a legislative solution," Feinstein said.

"There has to be something bipartisan that comes out of this. The key is to keep these people together."